The Wombats - Fix yourself, not the world

  

After a four-year gap between albums, Liverpudlians The Wombat's are back with their 5th studio album "Fix yourself, not the world".  Since their formation in 2003, I got into this band at an early stage when their debut came out "A guide to love, loss and desperation" in 2007.  They have always been such a refreshing band; their witty lyrics, feel good vibes and in general spot-on song writing. Really set them apart from other bands on the indie scene throughout their career.  They are a band I have never seen live in person, but they have been a regular fixture at festivals such as Reading and Leeds. Then having sets broadcasted on TV I can safely say they always seem to be one of the standout performances of the weekend each time.

I bought the digipack version of "Fix yourself, not the world" and unusually for me I was a bit disappointed.  Not with the music but the artwork.  If you look on streaming services and Amazon you will see the artwork is so colourful and detailed and is like a scene out the computer game, Sim City.  The blues and greens really do standout.  However, when I got the digipack through it is still like a Sims like design, but the colours are quite dull and dark with browns and not as appealing colours.  In fact, the track listing is quite hard to read because there is not enough contrast in the colours, and this is also the same with the spine. Fair enough the booklet inside does have the "good" artwork but you kind of want that with the front and back cover.  I think if it’s a jewel case you would get the good artwork.

But enough of that, while artwork does contribute to an album, at the end of the day is the music up to standard.  And our survey says: Yes, it does!  The Wombats have always delivered consistently good albums, and this is no different.  I feel the singles they chose in the run up in the release of the album displayed their versatility well.   "Ready for a High" is an absolute stormer of a track. Such a great groove to it and when the brass section come in for a part of this track it's just a complete joy.  "Method in the madness" is a nice building track which has a wonderful climax.

But it's not just the singles are great on this album. This album goes deep and really it could be argued there are no skippable tracks on this.  Opening track "Flip Me Upside down" has a bit of a different feel to it than what they would usually do.  It's almost like a samba beat but at this time the chorus still absolutely soars.  They do mix things between the uplifting upbeat tracks and the softer laid-back tracks.  Another highlight is "Wildfire”, the vocal performance on this is spot on and shows Mathew Murphy's versatility in his vocal range.  

Overall, this is a fantastic album and The Wombats have once again kept quality control high.  As I write this, they are in the mix for a UK no 1 album.  It's a good time to release an album (January) as not many albums are released at this time of year so it would be good if The Wombats were to get more recognition because of this.  Also the name of the album in itself is quite apt for this day and age where the mental heal epidemic is riff through the country.  And sums things up nicely – “Fix yourself, not the world”